Far From the Madding Crowd - by Thomas Hardy

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Far From the Madding Crowd is a novel from 1895 by English novelist and poet Thomas Hardy.  It was initially a serial, as many books were at that time.(US Edition)  (UK Edition)  

The book has had a number of adaptations.  The 1967 film with Julie Christie and a uniformly great cast stands out.  Although the book was never forgotten, this did help popularize it for a new generation.

Hardy is not the easiest novelist to read.  This novel is where he first introduces "Wessex," his fictionalized area of Southwest England.  The name has now come into usage for that part of the country.

Mr. Oak carried about him, by way of watch, what may be called a small silver clock; in other words, it was a watch as to shape and intention, and a small clock as to size. This instrument being several years older than Oak's grandfather, had the peculiarity of going either too fast or not at all. The smaller of its hands, too, occasionally slipped round on the pivot, and thus, though the minutes were told with precision, nobody could be quite certain of the hour they belonged to. The stopping peculiarity of his watch Oak remedied by thumps and shakes, and he escaped any evil consequences from the other two defects by constant comparisons with and observations of the sun and stars, and by pressing his face close to the glass of his neighbours' windows, till he could discern the hour marked by the green-faced timekeepers within.

Mr. Oak and his watch could have stepped out of Dickens, but this is not a Dickensian novel.

I liked this description too:

A rather hard couch, formed of a few corn sacks thrown carelessly down, covered half the floor of this little habitation, and here the young man stretched himself along, loosened his woollen cravat, and closed his eyes. In about the time a person unaccustomed to bodily labour would have decided upon which side to lie, Farmer Oak was asleep.

You can see perhaps why his novels are not set completely aside, although I believe his poetry is superior and he is one of the great English poets.  I would like to mention that the excellent author, Claire Tomalin, has done a biography of Hardy, Thomas Hardy: The Time-torn Man

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The Relief Of Mafeking by Filson Young

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Filson Young was an Irish journalist whose work has been highlighted here before.  This is a 1900 book he wrote on the Boer War, The Relief Of Mafeking: How It Was Accomplished By Mahon's Flying Column, With An Account Of Some Earlier Episodes In The Boer War Of 1899-1900.  (US Edition)  (UK Edition)   He was embedded, although he would not have known that term.

In the early days of the war I was present at many embarkations at Liverpool and Southampton, and they left an impression on my mind which will not easily be effaced. For, even to an onlooker, the embarkation of troops, with its sights and sounds of tragedy, is an affair that burns itself into the memory; one is dazzled and confounded by the number and variety of the small dramas that are enacted before one's eyes; and the whole is framed in a setting of military system and circumstance that lends dignity, if that were needed, to the humble tragedies of the moment.

If you have ever seen film of troops departing for Afghanistan, you know that scene . . .

Another man who had missed seeing his wife before he had embarked caught sight of her from the ship's deck as she stood upon the quay with tears in her eyes. There was no chance of his being allowed to pass down the gangway. But the husband in him knew no obedience to the stern order, and he dived clean off the stern of the steamer into the filthy water and swam, khaki and all, to the steps at the side of the dock. And you may be sure his wife was there to help him out, and she forgot her grief in her pride at his daring. So he held her in his arm for a moment (and had three ringing cheers from his mates into the bargain) before he was collared and marched back to restraint, dirty but glorious.

This is a book about the raising of a siege during the Second Boer War in South Africa. 

That night and the next morning I walked through the town and talked to people who had been living there; and it was when I talked to the people that I began to realise what had been happening. The few ruined buildings and riddled walls conveyed little to me. But when one found man after man thin, listless, and (in spite of the joy of salvation) dispirited; talking with a tired voice and hopeless air, and with a queer, shifty, nervous, scared look in the eye, one began to understand.

The thing was scarcely human, scarcely of this world. These men were not like oneself. If you threaten an inexperienced boxer with a quick play of fists on every side of his head, even though you never touch him, you may completely demoralise him; he shies at every feint and every movement. And these people had been in a situation comparable with that of the poor boxer. Think of it. The signal from the conning tower, the clamour of bells and whistles, the sudden silence amongst the people, the rush for shelter, and then the hum and roar, like wind in a chimney, of the huge iron cylinder flying through the air, potent for death. And then, perhaps, the noise of a falling building, or the scream of some human creature who is nothing but a mass of offence when you come up five seconds later. Think of this repeated six or seven—sometimes sixty or seventy—times during the daylight hours, and can you wonder that men should lose their placid manners and scuttle like rats into their holes at the dreaded sound? And all this fear and horror to be borne upon an empty stomach, for the horrors of partial starvation were added to the constant fear of a violent death. Mothers had to see their babies die because there was no milk or other suitable nourishment; a baby cannot live on horse and mule flesh. There was hardly a coloured baby left alive; and that one statement accounts for whole lifetimes of misery and suffering.

There is a sad sameness to sieges.  This very much reminds me of what I have read of the siege of Vicksburg during the American Civil War.  The siege ended with the defeat of Vicksburg on July 4th.  It was a horrible siege with much shelling and starvation.  The town has not celebrated Independence Day since that time.

This blog is a guide to the best free and inexpensive classic literature for the US & UK Kindle. If you enjoy my suggestions, please tell your friends who read to give my blog a try. 

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For a nominal fee of 99 cents/pence, you can subscribe to this blog and have it automatically download on your Kindle. This gives you the convenience of being able to download the books directly to your Kindle, instead of downloading them to your computer and then transferring them to your Kindle. It also helps support my blog.

UK readers may go to this Amazon link to subscribe.  (Slightly more than half my readers are from the UK)

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Thank to all my readers, whether you subscribe on your Kindle or whether you read it online.  I love to get good reviews!  Who wouldn't?  Should you care to leave a review, follow these links for UK readers or US readers.

A Son of the Middle Border by Hamlin Garland

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American author Hamlin Garland won the 1922 Pulitzer Prize for biography with A Daughter of the Middle Border.  That is not the book I am suggesting here.  The forward for that book said:

"First of all, you must grant that the glamor of childhood, the glories of the Civil War, the period of prairie conquest which were the chief claims to interest in the first volume of my chronicle can not be restated in these pages. The action of this book moves forward into the light of manhood, into the region of middle age. Furthermore, its theme is more personal. Its scenes are less epic."

He goes on to say this book will answer questions raised by his autobiography, A Son of the Middle Border.  (US Edition)  (UK Edition)  So, of course I thought that it would be better to read his first book before his award winning book.  Awards are often given one  book too late anyway.  A book is belatedly recognized as a classic, so the author's next book gets the award the first book should have gotten!  Well you will have to decide whether that is the case here.The book, written in 1917, begins with a tea leaf reading late in the American Civil War:

"A soldier is coming to you!" she says to my mother. "See," and she points into the cup. We all crowd near, and I perceive a leaf with a stem sticking up from its body like a bayonet over a man's shoulder. "He is almost home," the widow goes on. Then with sudden dramatic turn she waves her hand toward the road, "Heavens and earth!" she cries. "There's Richard now!" We all turn and look toward the road, and there, indeed, is a soldier with a musket on his back, wearily plodding his way up the low hill just north of the gate.

That is a promising beginning!

The term "middle border" is a new one to me.  Garland uses it to refer to the prairie states of Wisconsin, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota and South Dakota.  I think it was a term he created, but it could have been a term in use at the time.  At one point he mentions the middle border has moved west 300 miles.  These states in the middle of the country, all Midwestern states, were initially territories.  They were added successively as states as they became populated by settlers (and depopulated of their original inhabitants, the Indians.)  So perhaps this was the name for the border of the U.S. which was in the middle of the country.  This middle border crept westward across the area that had been leapfrogged when gold was discovered in California to meet the state of California.  California obtained statehood "out of order" so to speak.

Well, I went a little off topic, but as a Midwesterner, who knows this area is neglected in contemporary literature and is disparaged as Flyover Country, I wanted to know why someone would title his biography, A Son of the Middle Border.  

This blog is a guide to the best free and inexpensive classic literature for the US & UK Kindle. If you enjoy my suggestions, please tell your friends who read to give my blog a try. 

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For a nominal fee of 99 cents/pence, you can subscribe to this blog and have it automatically download on your Kindle. This gives you the convenience of being able to download the books directly to your Kindle, instead of downloading them to your computer and then transferring them to your Kindle. It also helps support my blog.

UK readers may go to this Amazon link to subscribe.  (Slightly more than half my readers are from the UK)

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Thank to all my readers, whether you subscribe on your Kindle or whether you read it online.  I love to get good reviews!  Who wouldn't?  Should you care to leave a review, follow these links for UK readers or US readers.

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

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Charles Dickens is one of England's finest writers and Great Expectations is perhaps his most celebrated book.  (US Edition)  (UK Edition)  We all have our favorites, but when it comes to what is called a "critical" success, I believe Great Expectations with the indelible character of  Miss Haversham cannot be denied.

A US Amazon Reader Reviewer says "Best novel EVER!"  A UK Reader Reviewer (what would I do without you guys?) says; " I thought I'd try just the first chapter, but was hooked from the first page. This is one helluva book! The pace, the characterisation, the plot, the atmosphere, the everything are masterly. But it isn't all misery as there are frequent moments of irony and typically English gallows humour. Outstanding, but it'll make you cry."

This is an extraordinary book.  It is one of his shorter novels, but contains some of his more memorable characters,  Miss Havisham, Estella, Pip, Jaggers, Wemmick, and Magwitch.  

Let's take a look. 

I had heard of Miss Havisham up town,—everybody for miles round had heard of Miss Havisham up town,—as an immensely rich and grim lady who lived in a large and dismal house barricaded against robbers, and who led a life of seclusion.

And . . .

We went into the house by a side door, the great front entrance had two chains across it outside,—and the first thing I noticed was, that the passages were all dark, and that she had left a candle burning there. She took it up, and we went through more passages and up a staircase, and still it was all dark, and only the candle lighted us.

At last we came to the door of a room, and she said, "Go in."

 I answered, more in shyness than politeness, "After you, miss."

To this she returned: "Don't be ridiculous, boy; I am not going in." And scornfully walked away, and—what was worse—took the candle with her.

The house and garden are as much a character as any person in the book. 

The original ending was pulled by Dickens at the recommendation of his friend, Bulwer-Lytton, and replaced with a different version.  Most critics seem to prefer the original ending and you will be able to find it online if you like. 

This is one of two Dicken's novels written in first person; the other being David Copperfield, which famously begins;  " I am born."

There are many film versions; the best is generally considered to be the 1946 version with John Mills, Alec Guinness, and Jean Simmons.  But read it, then watch it!

This blog is a guide to the best free and inexpensive classic literature for the US & UK Kindle. If you enjoy my suggestions, please tell your friends who read to give my blog a try. 

Join me on Twitter, FaceBook, or Pinterest.

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For a nominal fee of 99 cents/pence, you can subscribe to this blog and have it automatically download on your Kindle. This gives you the convenience of being able to download the books directly to your Kindle, instead of downloading them to your computer and then transferring them to your Kindle. It also helps support my blog.

UK readers may go to this Amazon link to subscribe.  (Slightly more than half my readers are from the UK)

US readers may go to this Amazon link

Thank to all my readers, whether you subscribe on your Kindle or whether you read it online.  I love to get good reviews!  Who wouldn't?  Should you care to leave a review, follow these links for UK readers or US readers.